39 Weeks 2 Days

So here I am….39 weeks 2 days pregnant and I actually feel like I’m overdue. Why do I feel like that? Because the doctor told me “you probably won’t go past your due date”. I know this still doesn’t explain why I should expect to have a baby a week early, but for some reason, I’m now feeling like it’s never going to end. On top of that, Friday night I woke up with pretty bad period cramps. I was thinking about timing them, but fell asleep, so clearly they weren’t that bad. Then Saturday night and Sunday during the day, more period cramps. Not as intense, but definitely there. They weren’t really timeable though. Yesterday at work, I started to feel a bit crampy too, so I worked to make sure that everything outstanding was completed or at least well noted so that someone else could take over. Yet again though, I am here today at the office. Maybe I should try leaving many loose ends and items uncovered and see if that makes the baby decide he should make an appearance.

My doctor visit at 37.5 weeks gave me the outstanding news that I was 75% effaced and 1 cm dilated. This just made me so happy since I really felt like my body was making the preparations necessary to go into labor naturally in a timely fashion. Then at my 38.5 week appointment, there was no change, except that the baby had dropped more (which the doula says is still change). I was slightly disappointed, but tried to convince myself that the baby dropping was significant. I have my next appointment today. I have to admit, after all this cramping, I will be discouraged if there is not change. I just want to know that something is actually happening down there. I’m actually fine with not having this baby until next week. I am tired of being pregnant, but it’s not so physically uncomfortable that I’m hating every minute of it, but I just want to keep my confidence up. The confidence I have in my body’s ability to deliver a baby.


With all that being said, I have tried to adopt an attitude of “enjoy this while it lasts”. Sunday, I really had no desire to do anything, but we went out to a nice lunch and went grocery shopping together. (we NEVER grocery shop together). This was something that we soon won’t have the luxury of doing. We also spent time in the pool, TW worked outside in the yard and in the barn the rest of the day, and I cooked a big dinner with enough to toss in the freezer and we watched a movie. It was a lovely day. I am really hoping to take these next few days and try to do things that I won’t be able to do later. It’s so hard not to just be excited about the baby coming, and I am sooo excited about that, but I also hate the idea of wishing time away. Our days are numbered, all of us, so we might as well enjoy each one.

So we are still waiting on one of the pieces of the baby’s furniture. This is very frustrating to me because I really wanted to make a beautiful little nest for my little one before he came, and now that is ruined. Just be forewarned that if you order furniture from Buy Buy Baby and they tell you it will be 8-10 weeks, it could actually be more like 17 weeks, and there won’t be any advance notice of this delay. I would like to finish the rest of the room, but it’s so hard to know what will look good on the walls and on the dresser when parts of the furniture are not here yet. I’m very frustrated. It’s not the end of the world of course, but I am such a planner and I feel that this was planned out appropriately, so the delay has been frustrating.

That’s it for now. Three more hours until my next doctor appointment.

38 Weeks!

My doctor’s appointment was last Wednesday and I had a surprise internal check. I guess he normally starts them at 38 weeks, but since I was close (37.5 weeks), he asked what I wanted to do. I was curious, so I went ahead and told him to check. It turns out that I’m 75% effaced and 1 centimeter dilated. I was in complete shock. I realize that this is not a huge amount, but I just assumed that since my body was so uncooperative in getting pregnant that it would be just as stubborn with the process of delivering the baby. Of course, the outcome of that is yet to be seen, but I was just so relieved and encouraged that some things were beginning to happen on their own. The doctor even told me that he didn’t think I would go much past my due date if at all. I know every person is different, but this too came as a complete shock. I have thought all along that I would be at least a week, maybe 10-14 days late (maybe even later if they would let me go that long). It was a bit of a wake up call to my husband and me both that we needed to really get things ready because this baby could be here anytime.

I had been feeling a bit crampy at night. This was very minor cramping, but it was there. Since my appointment last Wednesday, I haven’t felt much cramping, so I was a tad discouraged that things might be stalling. Last night however, I began feeling many sharp sensations in my cervix area. These are unpleasant, but they are very quick and definitely not contractions. Some of them are so strong they stop me in my tracks. I really had to sit down last night because I couldn’t take them standing up. After I sat down for a while, they seemed to subside, but I’m getting them again today. I have googled this (of course) and others report similar sharp pains at this stage of pregnancy as being related to the baby’s head descending and coming into contact with nerves in the area creating a “lightning rod” effect. This sounds very similar to what I’m experiencing. I do think the baby has definitely dropped, so that would make sense. No matter what it is, I just hope it’s related to my body preparing itself to evict a baby.

My next appointment is Wednesday again, and although I’m trying not to get my hopes up, I am hoping for some further progress on effacement and dilation. It probably isn’t all that relevant to the actual date and time that I will go into labor, but again gives me the much needed encouragement to believe that my body was meant to do this and despite its trouble getting pregnant, we can expect a NORMAL type of delivery.

I would also like to note that for those who have heard that an internal check is exceedingly uncomfortable, you can rest assured that it really is not. I found it to be no big deal, particularly when compared to some of the things I endured with my IVF. Would I choose to have my OB's hand and half his forearm jammed up my hoo-ha over taking a walk or having a snack or whatever, of course not, but it certainly is not even as bad as a pap smear.

Another Google Violation

Ok, so to follow up on my last post, the doctor felt that everything was probably just fine with the baby despite his excessive hiccups, but just in case he went ahead and ordered an ultrasound with a biophysical profile. Apparently a good biophysical profile nearly guarantees you a healthy baby for the next 1-2 weeks, so worst case scenario, we do weekly ultrasounds until I deliver, which is hopefully in the next 2-4 weeks. As the doctor expected, everything looked great with the baby during the ultrasound. He was practicing his breathing, he’s still a boy, and he’s officially very smooshed inside my uterus. The tech tried to take a picture, but it’s so contorted because of the lack of space that I haven’t even shown it to anyone.

So yesterday, my husband came out of work with a cup that had ice and water in it. The ice was those little balls of ice that you might get at a place like Sonic. I’ve never enjoyed chewing ice because my teeth are sensitive, but yesterday, I was like a mad woman. I couldn’t get enough of this ice. It was like an obsession. Now today, I’ve filled a glass with ice and water and have been chewing that ice all day too. This is really very unusual for me. So of course, I googled it. I really only did it because I wondered if it was a common craving in pregnancy or something. Well, the answer is…Yes, it is common in pregnancy, but is a symptom of anemia (which apparently is also common in pregnancy). I know being anemic is really not that big of a deal and more importantly, just because google says it, doesn’t mean that I am actually anemic, but seriously, why is it that I can’t just leave it alone. Why does everything need to have an answer via the world wide web. In addition, why am I trusting what I read there, when so many of the responses are so grammatically incorrect or misspelled that I can hardly discern the content. Clearly most of the contributors are not well educated in health related matters. The good news is that I do have my next appointment tomorrow, and I will mention to the doctor that I’ve been craving chewing ice, and let him tell me that I have nothing wrong with me.

On another note, I am still absolutely convinced that this baby will not be showing his face until 41+ weeks, yet I cannot seem to keep myself from mildly obsessing over labor signs. I have had intermittent cramping, mostly overnight, that reminds me of menstrual cramping. It’s very mild, and I could even be convinced that it is my imagination if I weren’t feeling it so often now. My doula said that often effacement can feel like cramping, so maybe that is what is happening. I also think the baby may have dropped a little. I’m not sure, but I have noticed that my frequent urination suddenly became even more frequent, and this increase coincided with a decrease in bloating after eating (although I did have some bloating last night, so maybe this was just a fluke). Other than these things, I’ve felt absolutely nothing that would make me think labor is imminent, which I suppose is good since I’m not even officially 37 weeks yet.

I was looking forward to internal cervical checks, but I read today that the information that is learned from these checks rarely gives any true insight into the actual onset of labor. What I understand is that the cervical checks are actually more helpful in determining the likelihood of a successful induction, but since we are trying very hard to avoid induction, I’m not even that interested in it for that. I suppose it would give me some comfort to know that my body was beginning to go through the natural steps that eventually lead to the eviction of this baby without outside interventions, but on the other hand if the exam concludes that my cervix is 0% effaced and I’m totally closed, I’m concerned it may contribute to some undue stress (like worrying incessantly that I’m doomed to have an induction and an epidural and have no control over my labor experience at all). I guess the answer is that I will allow them to happen, but I will try not to obsess (yeah right) over the results.